After another early breakfast (do I ever get a lie in?) we headed off back to near the SkyTree, to an area called Asakusa.
This time we were going to visit Senso-ji Temple and it’s 5 storey Pagoda.
We arrived around 9.30 and it was already heaving with sightseers - including us.
Very impressive it was, enormous Temple, but even more impressive (in my view) was the pagoda, which didn’t get top billing.
Surrounding the whole area were lines of small shops, selling you everything from chopsticks to wishes.
Interestingly, tucked to one side was a small memorial commemorating a day in March 1945, when 300 US bombers droppped their payload on the area.
The devastation razed Asakusa to the ground and killed 10000 people that night.
There are precious few buildings in Tokyo that survived the war in tact.
Leaving the masses we headed off to Ueno Park, which houses further temples and art museums.
Rather than getting the train, we walked the connecting streets and how lovely it was.
It was a quiet Sunday morning, with little traffic.
This particular street had a number of knife shops. Japanese knives are world famous for their craftsmanship.
We stopped to take a look, I’m sure if you’re a serious chef, these are what you’d want.
The knives retailed for well over £100 and some were £300+.
In one knife shop there was a guy sharpening knives in the window using a whetstone. We stopped to look and noticed in the other window of the shop was a Triumph bike. Strange, even more so when a little note said it was made out of “99% paper”.
Whilst discussing this, an elderly gentleman came out from the shop and confirmed it was paper and he’d made it.
It transpires the knife shop was the family business, his 2 sons run that now. He converted the garage and set up another shop window where the bike is displayed (it took him 6 years to make). He was an artist and sold painted fans.
He invited us in to see the shop and showed us the real Triumph bike which is inside - it looked identical to the original. He also showed us his next project, a Triumph Bonneville.
We told him of our village’s “Two Wheel Tuesday” and showed him some photos of the hundreds of bikes that gather in the summer, he was most interested and impressed.
Moving on, we made it to Ueno Park, where not only were the tourists there but also Japanese families taking time out - as well as Power Rangers and other animated characters??!
We’d arranged to meet Susan, a friend of Claire’s from Wymondham running club and her husband Simon, who had just arrived in Tokyo for a cruising holiday.
Over a cuppa, we had a good old mardle, before we went our separate ways and on with our journeys.
Visting the National Museum, there were an impressive array of “Samurai” swords and armour that looked so immaculate you would have thought they’d been made yesterday - they were made in the 1600’s. 
By this time we had to get back to Asakusa as I’d read about a street procession which was to take place. It was the first time in many years that it had been held. So, rather than walking, we caught the train and before long we were standing on the Main Street admiring these fantastic groups dancing past us whilst calling out to the beat of the drums.
Each person was made up and dressed up immaculately - it really was a sight to see - and hear (video on my FB)
After what turned out to be a busy and enjoyable day, we returned to our hotel to prepare for departure the next day.
The first thing we did though on arriving at the hotel was to arrange for our luggage to be forwarded.
Japan has a very popular luggage/package handling service called “Yamato”.
Basically you give them (hotel) your luggage, they measure it (size wise) and charge a fee. Your luggage is then collected and sent to your next hotel (usually arriving the next day, not same day)
We completed the forms that evening, so after breakfast the following day, checked out, and waved goodbye to our 2 suitcases, heading off to catch the train to Kanazawa. The cost was just under £11 for each case - well worth it, rather than having to drag/wheel/carry your cases down streets, stairs and train stations which we saw quite a few struggling tourists doing.
All we had was a small overnight supply of things to carry in our back packs.
We’d opted to get a train from Shinjuku (it was Monday morning rush hour OMG!! Never seen anything like it) out of Tokyo centre, going out to Omiya, to catch the Shinkansen to Kanazawa.
This made our journey way more pleasant.
Arriving early, we were able to watch some of the other “bullet” trains come and go before we boarded ours.
Boy, were they impressive!
Japan has had their high speed network since the 1960’s, growing in size, speed and network ever since. In the space of the 15 minutes we were on the platform 5 Shinkansen arrived and departed - the UK has 1 high speed train line and we all know what discussions has taken place about HS2!
We’d reserved seats, our train arrived on time, we jumped aboard and spent the next 2 hours watching the outside zip past at 200mph. It wasn’t until we had gone through the mountain range tunnels did we really see countryside - before we arrived at Kanazawa.
There’s lots of room on board, power, free Wi-Fi and refreshments if need be.
An excellent (and green?) way to travel.
For the 2 of us to travel (around 300 miles by car which would take 6 hours) it cost approx. £150.
Arriving in very hot Kanazawa, the first thing we did was to buy train tickets for our next stage of the journey to Kyoto (best to make sure you have seats!) and then we went round the corner to the bus station to buy tickets for a bus ride to a nearby village which we want to visit in a couple of days time. Luckily, there were some seats still available .
Then we took ourselves off to the hotel which is to be our base for the next 3 nights.
Once we’d unpacked (it took 2 minutes) we walked to through the grounds of Kanazawa castle to Kenroku-en gardens, reputedly one of the top 3 gardens in Japan.
As we’d gone late afternoon, it was pretty quiet and absolutely lovely.
The gardens are built around water features which originally were built to carry water from a river to the castle.
Over time, the castle was abandoned and the water was re purposed to make the gardens.
Returning to the hotel we showered and went off to a Japanese brew pub for some evening refreshment - and some cheeky Kit Kats afterwards - and very nice it was too!
This featured blog entry was written by Norfolk Boy from the blog Japan.
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